Fusion Drives on 2012 iMacs?

[jfrancis04]

So I ordered a used 2012 iMac that was supposed to have a 1TB fusion drive. Once the computer arrives and I set everything up, I notice the boot time seems to be abnormally long for a fusion drive (I work in a mac lab and use traditional HD machines, SSD machines, and fusion drive machines every day).

After I'm logged in, I go into the system information screen and see what looks like a standard 1TB HDD (see attached image).

I'm now having a back and forth with the seller and they're attempting to claim it does in fact have a fusion drive.

So my question to you guys...did Apple change how the fusion drive is displayed inside system information over the years? I know for a fact that when I go into system information on a more recent machine, I can see both the ssd and the HDD listed. It's always above 1TB as well. Was it any different for the 2012 iMacs?

 

[bent christian]

I don't see an SSD there. I see the EFI, the boot partition with 10.9 on it, and a recovery partition. With any Fusion drive, you will always see a line item for the rotational drive and the SSD listed in the system hardware report. I don't see that here.

This system does not appear to be have a Fusion drive. The seller is either ignorant, or is trying to rip you off. There is a very easy way to tell. If you open Disk Utility, in the connected drive list it will list a Fusion drive if there is one. I forget if it tells you in About This Mac > Storage. It might. Take a screen shot and send it to the seller.

 

[jfrancis04]

I don't see an SSD there. I see the EFI, the boot partition with 10.9 on it, and a recovery partition. With any Fusion drive, you will always see a line item for the rotational drive and the SSD listed in the system hardware report. I don't see that here.

This system does not appear to be have a Fusion drive. The seller is either ignorant, or is trying to rip you off. There is a very easy way to tell. If you open Disk Utility, in the connected drive list it will list a Fusion drive if there is one. I forget if it tells you in About This Mac > Storage. It might. Take a screen shot and send it to the seller.

This is exactly what I was thinking. I had checked disk utility as well.

Just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy and missed something about the 2011 versions before digging my heels in on this. Thanks for the response.

 

[Hirakata]

So I ordered a used 2011 iMac that was supposed to have a 1TB fusion drive. Once the computer arrives and I set everything up, I notice the boot time seems to be abnormally long for a fusion drive (I work in a mac lab and use traditional HD machines, SSD machines, and fusion drive machines every day).

After I'm logged in, I go into the system information screen and see what looks like a standard 1TB HDD (see attached image).

I'm now having a back and forth with the seller and they're attempting to claim it does in fact have a fusion drive.

So my question to you guys...did Apple change how the fusion drive is displayed inside system information over the years? I know for a fact that when I go into system information on a more recent machine, I can see both the ssd and the HDD listed. It's always above 1TB as well. Was it any different for the 2011 iMacs?

Fusion drives weren't introduced into Macs until late 2012. So if there is a fusion drive, it's homemade.

 

[bent christian]

Fusion drives weren't introduced into Macs until late 2012. So if there is a fusion drive, it's homemade.

This brings up another oddity. Were 5400rpm drives even available for the iMac in 2011? I know they went 5400rpm with base drives in 2012 because of space constraints with the new thin design. Fusion was also introduced in 2012 to help speed up the slower drive. The thicker designs always used 7200rpm drives, didn't they? Perhaps this iMac has also had its drive replaced? Maybe it is not a 2011 model?

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

 

[Hirakata]

This brings up another oddity. Were 5400rpm drives even available for the iMac in 2011? I know they went 5400rpm with base drives in 2012 because of space constraints with the new thin design. Fusion was also introduced in 2012 to help speed up the slower drive. The thicker designs always used 7200rpm drives, didn't they? Perhaps this iMac has also had its drive replaced? Maybe it is not a 2011 model?

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

I agree, it is odd as they all came with 7200 drives.

OP, go into "About This Mac" and click on More Info. That will give you the date of your Mac (i.e. Late 2011). Click on System Report and it will give you the Model Identifier.

 

[jfrancis04]

Fusion drives weren't introduced into Macs until late 2012. So if there is a fusion drive, it's homemade.

This brings up another oddity. Were 5400rpm drives even available for the iMac in 2011? I know they went 5400rpm with base drives in 2012 because of space constraints with the new thin design. Fusion was also introduced in 2012 to help speed up the slower drive. The thicker designs always used 7200rpm drives, didn't they? Perhaps this iMac has also had its drive replaced? Maybe it is not a 2011 model?

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

I agree, it is odd as they all came with 7200 drives.

OP, go into "About This Mac" and click on More Info. That will give you the date of your Mac (i.e. Late 2011). Click on System Report and it will give you the Model Identifier.

Ugh. Typo on my part. Was actually a 2012 model. Correcting the OP now.

One other thing I meant to point out in the OP is that it came in the Apple box and the box stated it was a fusion drive. I purchased it through Mac of All Trades. I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't a shady trade-in where the person selling to them tampered the hard drive or put a standard one in for some reason rather than the fusion drive?

They have now agreed to a refund, but I can't get them to budge on reimbursing my shipping costs. Best I've been able to do is to get them to offer the shipping costs as store credit. All the while, they still seem to be maintaining that it is actually a fusion drive.

 

[Hirakata]

Ugh. Typo on my part. Was actually a 2012 model. Correcting the OP now.

One other thing I meant to point out in the OP is that it came in the Apple box and the box stated it was a fusion drive. I purchased it through Mac of All Trades. I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't a shady trade-in where the person selling to them tampered the hard drive or put a standard one in for some reason rather than the fusion drive?

They have now agreed to a refund, but I can't get them to budge on reimbursing my shipping costs. Best I've been able to do is to get them to offer the shipping costs as store credit. All the while, they still seem to be maintaining that it is actually a fusion drive.

Glad you got a refund. Sucks about the shipping though. Here's something to check out about how it should appear:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/11/fusion-drive-quick-look-our-predictions-confirmed/

I had an old roommate who bought a Mac through Mac Of All Trades and had a similarly poor experience. I personally would stay away from them.

 

[macthefork]

Ooops... just read the correction... Never mind...

Original Post:
No Fusion Drive, (No SSD shown.) A fusion would show a total of 1.1 TB. As mentioned, the 2011 came with the single 7200 RPM drive. Since it's an Apple branded Hitachi Drive, it could have been replaced by Apple due to failure of the original. I believe those Hitachi drives came out in July of 2012.

 

[jfrancis04]

Glad you got a refund. Sucks about the shipping though. Here's something to check out about how it should appear:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/11/fusion-drive-quick-look-our-predictions-confirmed/

I had an old roommate who bought a Mac through Mac Of All Trades and had a similarly poor experience. I personally would stay away from them.

I should have grabbed more screenshots before I shipped back. I checked those areas too when I had the computer in hand and nothing I could find indicated a fusion drive. Everywhere I looked showed exactly 1 TB, not slightly more like the link you posted (and in all the other apple fusion drives I've seen at the lab I work in).

 

[bent christian]

They have now agreed to a refund, but I can't get them to budge on reimbursing my shipping costs. Best I've been able to do is to get them to offer the shipping costs as store credit. All the while, they still seem to be maintaining that it is actually a fusion drive.

I would refer this to my credit card company/Paypal, etc. If they advertised this as a Fusion model (which it clearly is not), the listing was false. Approach this as a case of fraud, which it kind of is, and I think you will get a full refund regardless of what Mac Of All Trades wants. Companies on the other end of a chargeback claim have a fee on top of the refund, so they will usually roll over if it is truly their fault. In this case, it is.

 

[coldsweat]

You haven't shown all of the info on the Sys info screen, Does it mention an Apple SSD anywhere - maybe in the window above what is shown in your screen shot?

If it does show an Apple SSD then it's a Fusion drive that's been split into a separate SSD & HDD, if not then your machine doesn't have a Fusion drive at all. A correctly configured fusion drive will state 'Apple_CoreStorage' under the 'Content:' section of the main partition in Sys Info.



Just had a thought- quickest way to check if it has a Fusion drive is to do a 'get info' (cmd+I) on the main HDD in finder, if the capacity is 1.11TB then it has a Fusion Drive, if it only says 1TB then it hasn't...... Simples!

 

[DeltaMac]

I wonder what is listed for installed storage on the serial number sticker, on the bottom of the iMac foot...
I think it should list fusion drive (or FD?) on that label. If the label also lists fusion drive, then I think you had one that either has a failed SSD, or someone simply removed the SSD at some point.
But, the 2012's and newer are not simple to open up just to remove the SSD.

 

[Adam552]

To determine if it's got a fusion drive; open Terminal, type diskutil list, paste it here or read http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/11/fusion-drive-quick-look-our-predictions-confirmed/

Edit: NVM someone beat me to it and I missed it! Even same link lol

 

[firedept]

Here is what a fusion drive should look like in a 2012. I have late 2012 27" iMac with 1TB fusion drive and as you can clearly see there is a 128GB SSD and 1TB hdd.